


Swapped

by DarthAbby



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Gaming, Language, Mind Games, Multiverse, My First AO3 Post, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Super Mario Brothers, i mean it's RT of course there's going to be some language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-21
Updated: 2014-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-26 10:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2649419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthAbby/pseuds/DarthAbby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It sounded interesting enough - a new video game that combined all the others, called 'Swapped'. A new Let's Play, might even turn it into a regular thing if it got popular and they had fun playing it.</p><p>Well, if they can all make it back home alive, that is.</p><p>On hiatus until further notice</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was always going to end here. Really, there was no other way it could have ended, now that he stopped to actually think about it. It was always going to come down to the two of them at the top of this goddamn pyramid, but he still wasn’t sure who would actually be left standing.

  
The stone in his hand felt much too heavy as they gazed at each other, and his heart lurched as he realized the cold calculation in the other’s eyes had completely overtaken any hint of fear or warmth or… _humanity_.

  
“Please,” he said softly, unsure if it could even be heard over the harsh wind that tugged at their clothes. “You don’t have to do this.”

  
“You know the rules as well as I do.” The other’s voice, though still familiar, was laced with an alien iciness and uncaring tone. “Only one gets out. The others were all unfortunate accidents; necessary, but unfortunate. But now, there’s only you and I. And I am not staying in this fucking hell hole. Not any longer.” He raised the explosives in his hand and stepped forward.

* * *

  
“Where the _hell_ is Jack?”

  
Michael glanced over from where he was half-heartedly editing a Rage Quit to take in Geoff’s grumpy expression. “Geoff, come on, it’s only been twenty minutes since you got here. Give the man a minute.”

  
“I want to film a new Let’s Play first thing,” Geoff said tersely. “And if Jack doesn’t get his ass here soon, we’re going to have to film it without him. And we need to do the next Versus – which he has to be in, since he’s the challenger this week!”

“Calm down, I’m sure he’ll be here soon – probably got stuck in traffic or something,” Ryan said, glancing up from his own editing job.

“If he was sick, he or Caiti would have called by now,” Michael pointed out. “So he’s coming.”

“Michael ‘Rage Quit’ Jones being the voice of reason,” Ray cracked as he spun in his chair, waiting for his achievement guide to render. The other Lad snickered as Ryan and

Geoff rolled their eyes. “Besides, why are you so worked up about Jack? Gavin isn’t here either.”

“That idiot has an excuse.” Gavin had gone back to England the day before and was set to return in a week.

“Did you get a signed note from his mom?” Ryan smirked as Ray and Michael laughed.

Geoff had just opened his mouth to give a smart-ass retort when the Jack came in, looking far too happy for being nearly half an hour late.

“I told you he would show up,” Michael shook his head. “Hey, Jack.” Similar greetings came from Ray and Ryan, but Jack brushed them off with uncharacteristic abruptness.

“Geoff, I know you wanted to do another _Worms_ Let’s Play, but I found something better.”

The tattooed man raised an eyebrow and gestured for Jack to continue. In answer, he was handed an Xbox game case that looked like it had been sitting in an attic for longer than the consoles were around.

“ _Swapped_?” Geoff read, looking skeptical. “Dude, what –?”

“Just read the back,” Jack grinned. “I think this could be really awesome.”

Geoff squinted at him for a second before flipping the case. “ _’Swapped’ is the new game to keep you on your toes_ ,” he read aloud. “ _Insert the disk into your Xbox and watch as it goes through your gaming history. When it’s time to start, ‘Swapped’ will take you through random games on your history, switching at unpredictable intervals and creating an exciting new gaming experience_.”

“That sounds like Go! without the whole getting up to actually pick out new games,” Michael summed up.

“Less physical activity? I’m in,” Ray said, half-joking.

“What about needing to put in the disks for all the different games, though?” Ryan asked.

Jack shrugged. “I don’t think you need to with this program.” Ryan gave him the confused, skeptical frown usually reserved for Gavin.

“Okay, but what about there being only one disk?” Geoff asked. “I don’t see anything about multiplayer mode on here.”

Jack pointed to the small print at the bottom. “It says there can be up to six players.”

There was a pause, and a silent agreement seemed to be made. “Which Xbox should we use, then?”

“Who has the most games?”

  
Ray spun his chair in the other direction thoughtfully. “Well, I mean, Michael does Rage Quit and I do the achievement guides, so we probably have a few more then you three.”

  
“You also have an overabundance of Smash Bros games on yours,” Ryan pointed out flatly, thinking back on all the games of that type Ray had destroyed them in during Versus. “I vote Michael.”

  
“I have shitty indie and community games all over my history, I’m warning you now.”

  
It was agreed among the Gents that those were preferable to Nickelodeon Super Smash Bros, and so the editing projects were saved and the game loaded into Michael’s console as they gathered around, arguing over mic placement as they waited for Swapped to finish searching Michael’s game history. He didn’t even have to select the game before the screen went dark and a line of text appeared, instead of the usual producer and maker introductions.

  
 _Are you ready to be Swapped?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, thanks for reading. This is my first time writing anything for RT/AH that's more than a tumblr drabble, so I hope I'm doing okay! I apologize if I got any of the Xbox stuff wrong - I don't own one, the most I've done is watch my friend play Tomb Raider on hers. Let me know if you spot any grammatical/spelling errors!


	2. Chapter 2

Ray blinked, staring up at the too-blue sky. He was lying in a…grassy field? What was he doing that for? What had happened? He remembered dicking around in his chair, waiting for a video, and then…Jack was late…but he had a new game for them to try...

A loud groan and muttered cursing broke Ray’s train of thought. He lifted his head, which felt oddly heavy, and looked towards the noise. Someone was wearing a weirdly familiar blue and red outfit, slowly rising from among the tall grass and rubbing their head. The youngest of the Lads sat up more as he recognized the person. “Michael?”

“Ray?” Michael ceased his quiet swears as he turned to look at his friend in confusion, though looking even more confused when he caught sight of the other. “Why is there a mushroom on your head?”

“YOLO,” Ray replied automatically, looking up and finding part of a large white and yellow-spotted hat. “And it looks more like a Toad hat from this angle.” He looked back at Michael. “Did we get kidnapped by Burnie and Gus for an Immersion? Because you’re in your Mario costume again.” Michael glanced down at the iconic uniform, looking even more baffled.

“Gav and I usually at least get some warning before being dragged out on an Immersion. And you’re not even part of that series!”

“What the hell…?”

Both Lads turned to see Geoff sitting up a few feet behind Ray, looking the definition of ‘dazed and confused’. “Who spiked my drink?”

“If that’s what happened, I’d like to know, too,” Michael grumbled.

“You pull off Luigi pretty well, boss.”

“What?” Geoff looked down at the green shirt and blue overalls. “ _What_?”

“Did anyone get the number of the truck that hit me?” Ryan groaned as he rose out of the tall grass, rubbing his face with a wince. He had on a hat similar to Ray’s, with blue instead of yellow spots, and a blue vest. Glancing down found a similar yellow vest on Ray.

“I think it hit both of us,” Jack corrected, clambering unsteadily to his feet a little ways behind Michael. His outfit was similar to Ray and Ryan’s, but his color was green. The others all rose fully, staring at each other in disbelief, taking in the ridiculously familiar costumes.

“So do any of you assholes know why we look like we just walked out of a Nintendo game?” Geoff finally asked.

Game… _game_! It finally clicked in Ray’s mind as the others muttered negatives. “The game!” he blurted out.

“What game?”

“The game, the one Jack found!” Ray explained excitedly. “That, uh… _Swapped_ game. It messes with your play, remember? Picks random games for you to play?”

“What the hell does that have to do with you three turning into mushrooms and Michael and I becoming Italian plumbers?”

“That’s the last thing I remember doing,” Ray defended himself. “Starting that game on Michael’s Xbox. And then we all ended up here.”

A long, silent moment passed before Ryan spoke. “That, uh…that’s the last thing I remember, too.”The other three slowly admitted that beginning the game were their last memories as well.

“Okay, so, what? We got sucked into the game or something?” Michael asked.

“I doubt that Burnie and Gus would drug us in the middle of a Let’s Play just for an Immersion shoot, and without warning, and when you’re the only one who’s even a test subject anymore,” Ray pointed out.

“The next Immersion shoot isn’t even until next month, anyways,” Jack added.

“Yeah, but, we can’t have _actually_ been sucked into _Super Mario Brothers_ , right?” Ryan asked. “I mean, that’s not exactly possible. And we were using an Xbox, which doesn’t even support Nintendo games."

“I can’t really think of any other way to get you in a Toad costume without a fight,” Geoff snorted.

Before Ryan could retort, Ray shushed everyone and pointed. “What the _fuck_ is that?”

A green number was flickering above Geoff’s head. As they watched, it became steadier, and a large green 10 was now hanging out over their boss. Said boss’ eyebrows shot up and he gestured wordlessly at Ryan. The same happened to him, then Jack, Michael, and finally Ray.

“…this is a joke, right?” Michael asked after Ray’s number had finished flickering. “A big, stupid prank for an RT Life or some shit? Because there is no way in hell we just got a tally of…”

“A tally of lives,” Ray finished quietly. They were gamers for a living – of course they recognized what the numbers were supposed to stand for. Ryan was reaching up, trying to touch his number, find the fakeness in it, but where his hand touched, it simply pixilated for a moment before returning to normal. It was like touching the screen of an older TV, making the picture spaz out until your hand moved away again.

“It’s not a projection,” he said, voice and shoulders tense. A muscle in Geoff’s jaw jumped.

“So, now what?”

Silence. Or, near silence. No one was talking, but Ray could swear he heard…music? He frowned and turned to what appeared to be the source. Off in the distance, something small and shiny was floating above the grass. Something that looked an awful lot like an item box. He started towards it, answering Jack’s question as he walked. What else could they do? Either this was a ridiculously elaborate prank or something more…strange had happened.

“Now, I guess…we play.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning on posting this next Wednesday, but I'm going to be busy all week, so have a new chapter ahead of schedule! The next one should be longer that the first two, as these were largely introductory chapters.
> 
> Thank you SO MUCH to all of you who left comments and kudos on the first chapter - it means a ton to me in any case, but especially as this is my first long RT story, and my first AO3-posted story.
> 
> I know there're some discrepancies in this chapter. Most should be intentional, but if you see something that doesn't feel like it will be answered later, go ahead and leave a comment so I can either fix it or reassure you that yes, I meant to do that.
> 
> And happy holidays to everyone! If you aren't celebrating anything this week, then have a nice end of November!


	3. Chapter 3

Walking for ten minutes brought the five of them to the item box. It was rotating slowly in midair, about a foot above Jack’s, the tallest, head. The top of his number ten just brushed the bottom of the box.

They all stared at it for a long moment. “So, uh,” Michael finally spoke, “Anyone wanna get that?”

It took another moment before Jack sighed and reached up. His hand bumped against the bottom and it disappeared, a small pile of fabric falling to the ground.

“It’s…more costumes,” Ryan said, gingerly picking up a green Luigi hat. “Character change?”

“Into what?” Michael questioned, nudging a Toad hat with his foot. “There’s not even supposed to be five players in the first place.”

“Well, there are now,” Ray shrugged.

“But it’s _not right_! _None_ of this is!”

As Michael grew more pissed and the others edged slightly away from the danger zone, Geoff noticed something that had been revealed when Michael had moved the Toad hat. It was small, black and…he grinned. It had a touch screen. It wasn’t until he had picked it up and had it in hand that anyone else noticed.

“Uh, Geoff?” Jack said, a bit nervously. “Is that a –?”

“Oh yes, my friend,” he waved it, almost tauntingly. “It’s a Wii U remote. _This_ is how we can have five players.”

A pause, and then there was a collective groan and Michael said aloud what they were all thinking.

“Oh, _fuck_.”

* * *

 

It was reluctantly decided to let Geoff keep the remote (less of a group decision and more of the fact that he wasn’t going to give it up without a fight they didn’t really have time for) and Jack and Geoff switched characters so that the group would still have a Luigi.

“Alright,” Ryan said, squinting into the distance. “We’re dressed, we’ve sorted out the players. Where’s the starting line?”

The others looked around, but it was endless grass in every direction. Not another item box, and certainly no platforms to jump on or pipes to go down. Even the music Ray had followed to the item box before had faded off into nothing.

“Maybe –” Geoff hit the power button on the remote.

“ _Geooooooff!_ ”

It was hard to tell who had shouted – all of them probably had, actually. But it was well-deserved. The ground was rumbling and shaking, far worse than any minor earthquake any of them had been in, and the music had returned. Not the faint auto-tune notes from before, either. This was the full blown synthesizer Mario Brothers theme, damn near sickeningly cheerful as the Achievement Hunters struggled to remain upright, watching with a mix of incredulous awe and fear as the landscape changed. Bricks appeared in midair, trees popped up, pipes burst from the ground, and off in the vaguely foggy distance, mountains that looked like polka dotted jelly beans rose. As the shaking started to die down, Geoff gave a (totally manly) squeak as the ground unexpectedly rushed away from him.

“Holy shit, Geoff!”

He looked down at Jack, who had shouted. “You’re the cloud guy!”

 

“Lakitu!” Ray added, which he probably thought was helpful. “Well, he can’t exactly run along with us if he’s playing on the remote,” Ryan pointed out.

“Yeah, speaking of, Geoff? Please try not to murder us.” The annoyed, but lighthearted, tone Michael would have normally used was replaced by a more serious tone they rarely heard from the Lad.

“I’ll do my best, buddy.” He promised, then looked up and gave a yelp. “Guys! You’d better get going! Goombas inbound!”

* * *

 

Michael liked to think he was pretty good at _Super Mario Brothers_. He wasn’t an expert, he didn’t always rack up the extra lives like Ray, but he certainly wasn’t Gavin, either. But now? When the stakes were presumably high enough to include his own mortality? Well, he was feeling pretty incompetent.

“Jump! Jump! _Fucking jump!_ "

“I’m _trying_!” And currently, his biggest enemy was this goddamn little crevice he had fallen into between a pipe and a staircase of bricks where the other three were waiting anxiously. “It’s different when you’ve got a goddamn controller, Ray!”

“You think I haven’t noticed?!”

“You’ve got _twelve lives_!” Michael said, a bit shrilly. “I’ve got _eight_!”

He had been the first casualty. Geoff, nearly shaking with nerves, had placed a block too soon, knocking Michael backwards and into a hole. Everyone’s heart had stopped for the five excruciating seconds until he had reappeared, looking pale as he floated towards them in a giant bubble. Ryan had popped it, the Lad dropping down next to the Gent, looking shaky but determined. “Let’s finish this goddamn level,” he had muttered.

Jack had died next, not expecting the shell Ray had accidentally kicked backwards when he leaped for a platform Geoff had spawned for them. Michael died again not long after, misjudging the distance between himself and the opposite side of a hole. Ray and Ryan had yet to die, Ryan holding steady at ten lives while Ray racked up the bonus points and had earned an extra two. He had tried to make some shitty joke about R&R Connection after Jack had died, but Ryan had only given a tight smile in response. Ray didn’t really mind. He didn’t feel much like laughing, either. He just lunged forward, slapping the half-way flagpole, and hardly noticing as it turned from black to yellow as they ran on.

Geoff, for his part, was much more subdued than when they had done the Wii U Let’s Play. He was trying to be more discerning about his block placement, listening to the others and trying to help where he could. He was pretty pleased to discover he could still take out some of the enemies with his blocks, at any rate.

It was Ryan who had found the first power-up – an ice flower. Ray, right behind him, had snagged one as well. Jack and Michael were busy trying to get away from a pair of Koopas, and the flowers had fallen away by the time they caught up to the other two. Costumes now accented with shocking blue, they had tried to use the ice powers numerous times, but couldn’t figure it out. There’s no ‘item use’ button in real life, at least none that they had figured out before running into the same Goomba and losing any abilities they couldn’t access.

“I see it! I see the flag!” Geoff shouted from above as Michael finally jumped high enough for Jack and Ryan to grab his arms and haul him up on top of the staircase. “It’s not much further, guys!”

“Haul anus!” Michael yelled, scrambling to his feet and leading the charge down towards another gap to jump over. With a few well-placed blocks by Geoff, they all made it across and found themselves at the top of a hill.

“Power slide, bitches!” Ray took a running leap, landing on his ass and sliding down the incline, knocking three Goombas away. Jack, Ryan, and Michael followed, Geoff still watching anxiously from above as his cloud trailed them. Only two more near-death experiences later, and they made it to the base of the flagpole.

“Geoff, make some stairs to the top se we can grab an extra life each!” Jack called up. The tattooed man nodded, carefully tapping the screen in front of him to make enough blocks until everyone was level with the flag itself. Ray, then Jack, Ryan, and Michael, grabbed on. A few fireworks went off in the distance as they did less of a slide down, and more of an invisible elevator ride. Everyone’s numbers ticked up by one. Ray was now at thirteen lives, Ryan at eleven. Jack was back to ten, Michael was still one short at nine, and Geoff glanced up and noted with some surprise that his number had also ticked up to eleven. As he was wondering over the possibility of a group-wide one up, an odd noise filled the air, clashing horribly with the music.

Eyebrows flew up on every face. They knew that noise, very, _very_ annoyingly well. Ever since they had landed here, no one had even thought about it, but now it was on the forefront of everyone’s mind.

Mouths slowly dropped open, one by one, as a dark shape fell through the air above them, becoming recognizable as lanky, gangly, and sporting a ridiculous on-purpose bedhead as it came closer, until finally –

_THUD_.

The four on the ground rushed over as Geoff leaned to look over the edge of his cloud.

A pained groan came from the figure on the ground. Jack, Michael, Ryan, and Ray exchanged glances before Michael spoke.

“…Gavin?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyy the gang's all here. But now the more important question arises - can they keep Gavin alive?
> 
> Expect some lovely, long explanations in the next chapter, and maybe a new game? 
> 
> Thanks again to everyone who left kudos/comments!


End file.
